--- title: Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Mike Pence Over LGBTQ Rights description: Pete Buttigieg — the mayor of South, Bend, Indiana, who could become the first openly gay President — criticized Vice President Mike Pence canonical: https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-09T00:07:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:14:53.595Z article:section: Politics og:title: Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Vice President Pence in Speech About LGBTQ Rights: 'Your Quarrel, Sir, is With My Creator' og:description: If elected, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay U.S. President og:url: https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6e1f1b0bef7f33/698947ed929fad093abf300f/mayor-pete-buttigieg-mike-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pete Buttigieg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Vice President Pence in Speech About LGBTQ Rights: 'Your Quarrel, Sir, is With My Creator' twitter:description: If elected, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay U.S. President twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6e1f1b0bef7f33/698947ed929fad093abf300f/mayor-pete-buttigieg-mike-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Vice President Pence in Speech About LGBTQ Rights: 'Your Quarrel, Sir, Is With My Creator'  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 9, 2019 12:07 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, South Bend, Ind. mayor, addresses the National Action Network (NAN) convention, on April 4, 2019 in New York. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, South Bend, Ind. mayor, addresses the National Action Network (NAN) convention, on April 4, 2019 in New York.Bebeto Matthews—AP  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 9, 2019 12:07 AM UTC On Sunday, Democratic [presidential candidate](http://time.com/5460620/2020-presidential-candidates/) Pete Buttigieg — the [mayor of South, Bend, Indiana](http://time.com/5510973/pete-buttigieg-mayors-president/), who would become the first openly gay President if elected — criticized Vice President Mike Pence for his [anti-gay rights policies](http://time.com/4406337/mike-pence-gay-rights-lgbt-religious-freedom/). “If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade,” Buttigieg said, speaking at an event for the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to elect openly LGBTQ people. “And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand — that if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.” As governor of Indiana, Pence, a conservative Christian, signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics said allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people on religious grounds. Pence also has a track record of [speaking out against policies](http://time.com/4406337/mike-pence-gay-rights-lgbt-religious-freedom/) that would protect the rights of LGBTQ people. And his wife, Karen Pence, [accepted a part-time teaching job](http://time.com/5504621/karen-pence-backlash-christian-school-lgbtq/) this year at a private Christian school that bars LGBTQ students and employees. Buttigieg came out as gay in an [essay for the South Bend _Tribune_](https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/south-bend-mayor-why-coming-out-matters/article%5F4dce0d12-1415-11e5-83c0-739eebd623ee.html) while campaigning for re-election in 2015, when Pence was governor of his state. Buttigieg said Sunday that he had worried about how his community would respond. “Would people in our socially conservative community embrace me and continue to judge me based on the job that I did for them?” he said. “Or would they turn on me, unable to look past the fact that who I was was something they had been brought up to reject?” Buttigieg, who was re-elected in 2015 by a wide margin, also discussed his sexual identity, his marriage and his faith on Sunday. “People talk about things like marriage equality as a moral issue, and it is certainly a moral issue as far as I’m concerned,” Buttigieg said. “It’s a moral issue because being married to Chasten has made me a better human being — because it has made me more compassionate, more understanding, more self-aware and more decent. My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.” If elected, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay president and, at age 37, would also be the youngest. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/"},"headline":"Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Vice President Pence in Speech About LGBTQ Rights: 'Your Quarrel, Sir, Is With My Creator'","datePublished":"2019-04-09T00:07:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:14:53.595Z","description":"If elected, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay U.S. President","url":"https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/","keywords":["2020 Election","Indiana","Mike Pence","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6e1f1b0bef7f33/698947ed929fad093abf300f/mayor-pete-buttigieg-mike-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6e1f1b0bef7f33/698947ed929fad093abf300f/mayor-pete-buttigieg-mike-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pete Buttigieg","caption":"Pete Buttigieg","creditText":"Bebeto Matthews—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5566322/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-lgbtq-speech/","name":"Pete Buttigieg Criticizes Vice President Pence in Speech About LGBTQ Rights: 'Your Quarrel, Sir, Is With My Creator'"}}]}] ```